I have just found the compatible OrangeRx 2.4 receivers on eBay here in the UK for for a Buy now price off £17.99. I have also googled the receiver and found an internet company selling them for £15.99. Which for me is great as only last week I reluctantly paid £35.99 from my local hobby store for a Spektrum AR500. NEVER AGAIN HORIZON HOBBY,INC!

I was told those HK spektrum compatible RXs are only compatible with spek air radios not surface. Which is a big shame because spektrum is really popular for surface apps too.

The price of replacement RX is why i did not, and will not buy spektrum, ko, futaba etc.. i need the odd micro RX which are £65 from spektrum - How can they justify this?, i hear the cry - the answer is they don't need to justify it, they are making FAT profit on every RX you buy. I worked it out, if my radio was say a DX3S the set inc all the rx i need would be £400

Horizon Hobby and our Spektrum team have not certified or authorised any other company’s claim of compatibility

Did anyone really expect them to "certify" or "authorise" another company's compatible receivers?

More interesting is the following quote:

"Horizon Hobby disclaims any and all liability for any damages or claims arising from the use of any counterfeit Spektrum receiver or any non-Spektrum or JR receiver claiming DSM2 compatibility. The consumer assumes all liability for using such products."

Does this mean they will accept liability for damages or claims where an incident occurs in the case of brown out?

"Horizon Hobby disclaims any and all liability for any damages or claims arising from the use of any counterfeit Spektrum receiver or any non-Spektrum or JR receiver claiming DSM2 compatibility. The consumer assumes all liability for using such products."

Does this mean they will accept liability for damages or claims where an incident occurs in the case of brown out?

MeRodent wrote: Does this mean they will accept liability for damages or claims where an incident occurs in the case of brown out?

Have they ever in the past? Not that I'm aware of. They always seem to want to blame everything but their equipment for the crash. You’re lucky if they replace the receiver. I know of NO one that ever got their very expensive plane replaced.

I'm with the majority here, HH has been charging far too much for their equipment. Where I had to get by with 3-4 receivers do to the high cost of each, I now have one in almost every foamie I have.

In any event, I have gotten a number of these receivers from various sources ( Hobby King, Target Hobby, Ebay ) to try outfor myself.

It broke down to two from EBAY that were AR6100e clones or knock off's @ 25.00 each. These were the only ones I "thought" may be the real thing being I bought this right when the knockoffs started showing up. Both of them are still installed and working in foamie planes.

I got a "compatible" orange 6 ch receiver from Hobby City. This one is also installed in a foamie and works fine. I paid 14.95 for it but have seen a price drop in the last week. They are now down to 7.95 a receiver plus shipping.

I have bought 11 AR6100e's that I know are knock offs from Target Hobby. Some were bought at 19.95 and a few were bought at 14.95. They are now down to 7.95 a receiver plus shipping. I have tested these receivers to the limits of my vision and still had control of the plane. I had to land it however as it was so far away that I could no longer tell which way it was going and preferred not to lose it. I have gotten only one bad receiver so far and that one was one of the AR6100 knockoff's. That said, Target Hobby replaced it at no cost and I didn't have to return the old one. They simply wanted a picture of it. ( it came with the case cracked and DOA )

I have also bought a few of their blue "compatible" receivers ( looks like a copy of the AR6110 but with a different case ) and have enjoyed the same results as before. no problems at all.

While I would not put one of these in anything but a park flyer, ( then again, I would not have put a “real” Spektrum AR6100 or AR6110 in anything but a park flyer ) They are great for what they are intended.

Now that most of the suppliers have them down to 7.95 plus shipping, I may even get a few more just for stand by’s.

At this cost, I can afford to have 3-4 go bad and still not be anywhere near a “real” spectrums cost.

Say want you want, but these receivers just made this hobby a bit less costly.

I bought a bunch of them! I will gladly sell them for what I paid! They are such short ranged as to be dangerous. I need to know how to tell the fakes from the genuine article of which I also have many.

I have just found this thread and thought I'd post up some pictures I got of a £6 reciever from a well known online shop here in the UK.

The ad states is is a dsm2 compatible reciever not a copy or clone, so I thought I'd try a couple.

I have had no issues with them so far but I am concerned because this is a copy of a spektrum reciever down to the copyrighted logos on it...I made up a range check jig and went for a walk when I first took delivery and got about 50m (55 paces) away in range check mode on the ground. but when the signal got lost it didn't re connect until I power cycled the reciever. a later test showed that if I only just went out of range then quickly went back into range the rx didn't lose the signal totally and this was observed at about 48m

sorry about the picture quality it looked ok on my phone screen but came out very dark on a monitor.I hope this gives you an idea of the level of commitment these manufacturers are going to to decieve the public. I for one am very concerned about this, as if it was a good stand alone product then why badge it up to appear to be something it isn't?

These recievers are to be used on a simstick and on small park flyers so I am not too concerned safety wise, but it is only a matter of time until one ends up in something that can easily get out of range.

I witnessed a super crash last night when a fairly powerful helicopter suddenly went full power in to the ceiling of a sports hall, then fell to the floor and thrashed itself to death. It appears that the guy had a fake Spektrum 6100 (I think) and he lost signal, instead of the Rx going to the fail safe settings it just went to full power. The rest of the evening was spent investigating what had happened. We had other fakes plus a couple of genuine 6100s, a DX6i, a DX7(i?), a DX8 and a JR Tx. Only the JR Tx didn't reproduce the problem! All the Spektrum Txs could be made to reproduce the exact same error condition.

Upshot is - don't use these fake Spektrum Rxs if you value your models. How would your insurance cover look at the use of a fake Rx if it was proven to be the cause of claim?